Photo by Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Vanity Fair
Bond Capital, a Silicon Valley VC firm whose portfolio companies include Slack and Uber, told its investors this morning via email that the coronavirus' high-speed spread and impact has similarities to the devastating San Francisco earthquake of 1906.
Why it matters: Bond's best-known partner, Mary Meeker, is a former bank analyst renowned for her annual Internet Trends Report, which many investors and entrepreneurs use as a touchstone for where tech is now and where it's going. Today's 28-page report to Bond's limited partners, obtained by Axios, shares some structural similarities.
Some takeaways:
- "Covid-19 has upended our modern lives in ways we’re just starting to understand."
- Prior epic viruses have permanently changed the world, but coronavirus may prove less impactful because of our information-sharing and scientific technologies.
- Scientists and other domain experts are getting "more seats at the table."
- Digital transformation is accelerating, due to so many people working from home. New work-life balances are also being struck.
- This may become the "call to arms" to better marry technology with healthcare, in terms of everything from telehealth to rapid point-of-care diagnostics, to applying automation and AI to health care services.
- "We are optimists and believe there is hope on the other side of despair.... We need government, business and entrepreneurial intervention at scale (deployed logically and effectively) to get to the other side."
Below is the full report, which is signed by the entire Bond Capital team: